Faith, the surviving conjoined twin, is ‘very sick’, say doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Sadly, Hope, her sister, died a few days ago.

Doctors say they had to operate because the girls’ health was deteriorating. An emergency operation was carried out because there was a blockage in their joined intestine. The only way to resolve the problem was by separation.

A press release by the hospital stated that the separation worked well – although it was extremely challenging – and went according to plan. After the separation the girls were moved to different theatres, along with twenty staff.

Professor Agostino Pierro, head of the surgical team, said that Hope’s lungs proved too small to support her breathing and she died on 2nd December. Her parents were present.

Doctors and staff at Great Ormond Street Hospital say they offer the parents their deepest condolences on their loss.

On December 3rd the hospital said that baby Faith was stable after the separation. She required breathing support, but was gradually improving. Sadly, her condition has deteriorated and now doctors say she has a 50-50 chance of surviving.

Great Ormond Street Hospital said today in a statement “Faith Williams is a very sick little girl. Great Ormond Street Hospital is doing everything it can for her, and we continue to offer her the highest possible levels of care.”

Mrs. Laura Williams, 18, the mother, is believed to be the youngest woman in Great Britain to have given birth to conjoined twins.

What Are Conjoined Twins?

There are 2 types of twins:

— Fraternal Twins and
— Identical Twins

— Fraternal Twins come from two separate eggs (dizygotic).
— Identical Twins come from the same single egg (monozygotic); the developing embryo divides into two.

— Identical Twins look very much like each other
— Fraternal Twins are as similar to each other as normal siblings are.

(Monozygotic = They result from the fertilization of one egg by one sperm. Dizygotic = They are the result of two eggs that are fertilized by two sperm)

— Fraternal Twins can be the same sex or different sexes.
— Identical Twins are the same gender.

Conjoined Twins are Identical Twins, but when the embryo starts to split, on the 13th day after conception, it does not do so completely – parts of the two stay stuck together. The two embryos mature into two fetuses that have parts of their bodies stuck to each other.

For some reason, more conjoined twins are girls than boys. For every pair of male conjoined twins born, three pairs of female conjoined twins are born. This is puzzling, because male identical twins are more common than female identical twins.

About 1 in every 40,000 to 70,000 births are conjoined twins. Only 1 in every 200,000 live births are conjoined twins.

40% of conjoined twins are stillborn, 75% are either stillborn or do not survive beyond their first 24 hours of life.

Click here for updates from Great Ormond Street Hospital

Written by Christian Nordqvist